Orange

I was so lucky to be chosen to be part of Reactor KC’s June First Friday show this year. The specs were really open leaving A TON of room for creativity. Size, medium, etc were all up to the artist. The only requirement was the work had to fit the theme ORANGE. This was a project I could get behind because I had been not using orange in my palette lately. Do you ever feel like you are leaning too heavy on certain colors and ignoring others?

I started working on thumbnail sketches on a May Friday night with a glass of wine. Maybe it was the KC heat or maybe it was my extreme love of waterparks but the result was a lazy river illustration. I wanted to show all different people enjoying the water and soaking up the sun. In my opinion there is something about a waterpark that allows people to finally relax, find some self acceptance, and have a great time. I used an opaque black and orange gouache to provide a pop and contrast to the transparency of the watercolor.

The following pictures may not be the best quality but they do track my process as I worked on the illustration. 😋

Refined Sketch

Color Comp/Study

Small Studies

Step By Step

Final painting below. Picture taken on phone in dark room with no lighting. I scan this image in and match colors/brightness in Photoshop. You can see scanned in version below.

I always have grandiose plans for painting when I travel but I think many artists can relate to the lack of time. Luckily I travel mostly with my wonderful husband who is a photographer and never minds when I camp out in a charming bistro to sketch. Here is a collection of some of my travel artwork.

This illustration was a really fun project to work on because it included a trip to Paris with my family. My amazing husband is a fantastic photographer and this project allowed me to use his photography to create a photo collage for reference.

On an Instagram story earlier this year I showed everyone how I stretched watercolor paper. I received quite a few comments and questions so I thought it would be interesting to document how I prepare my paper and stretch it so it is ready for painting.

I was so lucky to be chosen to be part of Reactor KC’s June First Friday show this year. The specs were really open leaving A TON of room for creativity. Size, medium, etc were all up to the artist. The only requirement was the work had to fit the theme ORANGE.